Pax Islamica: The Rise of Hellenic Islam

[Herzen's love-child]

Most of the catastrophic damage to Persia was the four year long civil war from 628-632 and the fact that Heraclius had raped and pillaged his way from Azerbaijian to Fars.

Exactly right.

So in short, what troubles me about this TL is the handwavium used to conquer Constantinople and why Persia should be weak. I implore the author to flesh out the details of both for the benefit of his TL.

 

[Legend-in-Exile]

If we subscribe to events following somewhat the timeline of the OTL ERE-Persian War, (but with the quick fall of Constantinople in 618, as per the POD, substituted for the abortive siege of 626 and the far longer OTL war) all of the damage would be on ERE soil, most of the bloody fighting which happened during Heraclius' invasion of Persia would be butterflied, and as per OTL, the alienated people of the Levant (especially the Jews) and Egypt will in large numbers gladly flock to Persian banners and make Persian control of those areas much less draining to the Persians.

Really, this alt history version of the war is a relative cakewalk for the Persians, and unless the Author of this TL explains, one can only conclude that the Persians would be far less damaged and stretched than the ERE was after the OTL war. The war of this TL is, in fact, a full decade shorter than the OTL war.

And Persia looks far better positioned to ward off Arab invasions than either the OTL Persia and ERE were.

I agree with most of what you say, I was trying to think of ways that the timeline could work.

If the Persians lost obscene numbers taking Constantinople and had to deal with multiple Christian/Roman uprisings they would be weak - at least in the west, which is, I assume where the Muslims go. Can't see them heading east into Mesopotamia or Persia proper without some catastrophe befalling the Persians.

The uprisings could be as a result of a more zealous attempt to impose Zoroastrianism on the populace (not hugely likely but then most of these events aren't)

You could perhaps see the Persians be willing to offload the rebellious areas. Which paves a clear path for the Muslims to follow - away from Persia and to the West. Again this is not hugely likely as abandoning tracts of territory which has only just been claimed is fairly unheard of.

If things remain as they are I also don't see how the muslims can beat the Persians.